


Growing

by NoGoodTuna



Category: Gundam & Related Fandoms, 機動戦士ガンダム 鉄血のオルフェンズ | Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Genre: Alternate Universe - Orphanage, Alternate Universe - School, Boys In Love, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, MMORPGs, Mecha, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-13 01:24:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7132460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoGoodTuna/pseuds/NoGoodTuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this alternate universe story set in the city of Chryse, we find some of the boys of Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans experiencing the daily struggles and joys of teenage boy’s life. Ride, Danji, Takaki, and Yamagi serve as our leads who work together to not only survive their school life but to make the best of it. Having been abandoned and forced to live in a home for boys, their life isn't like others. However, with the love and support from Fumitan, who wants the best in them, they are making the best of it. With all the joys of friendship, deep bonding, and even the development of romances, this long form story will give them the joys and headaches of everyday life. Join me as I have a bit of fun with their characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing

Ride yawned as he opened the door to the Chryse Guardian Sanctuary (CGS for short). As he did, he heard the loud music, boisterous screeches, and rowdy grunting from a few of the other children who found themselves living in this dormitory. He sighed as he hoped they wouldn’t be that loud by his room. The noise was partially to blame for why he was out and about on this lazy Sunday. There was no way to get anything done in the way of school work in this place when everyone was this active. Everyone living there was too busy and too into what everyone else was doing to give anyone the peace of mind to do their homework. Of course, that isn’t to say it was impossible, as, from what he saw, Biscuit, another residence who was at least a few grades above him, managed to maintain very high grades. Ride figured Biscuit had found some way to study here. Unfortunately, he wasn’t high level enough to do like Biscuit.

A grumbling from Ride’s stomach quickly halted any and all thoughts he had about avoiding the others by running up the stairs to the sanctuary of his room.

“Ride, is that you?” a calm almost soft spoken ladylike voice called from the kitchen.

Ride turned the corner from the hallway and entered the spacious kitchen. As he took a seat at the expansive dining room table, he looked directly at the lady who spoke.

“I’m so hungry Ms. Fumitan, do you have anything to eat?” Ride nearly moaned as he dropped his head to the table. He rubbed his forehead back and forth across the placemat in pure agony. He gripped his stomach to further emphasize his hunger.

Fumitan laughed as she went over to him and rubbed his head. He nudged into her and moaned in agony. He turned and gently tugged her flowery apron pleading for food.

Fumitan served as the overseer of CGS’s day to day life. It was her duty to take care of the inhabitants. She would cook for them, clean after them, make sure everything they needed was provided for, and even serve as a counselor if they ever needed her. One might have been surprised that someone of her demeanor would be in such a role. If one were looking for an outgoing figurehead for their organization, she would not be the first, second, or even the third choice. In fact, she gave off the air of being very scary, uptight, and condescending, but once she had the chance to speak, everyone instantly let down all barriers and opened up to her. This ability was what got her the job, and the love of all the kids kept her employed.

Fumitan rubbed Ride’s head one more time. She then strolled over to the cupboards. As Ride continued to moan he heard her take out some plates and silverware. She placed them on the counter then turned to the stove. As she opened it, he could instantly smell the delicious baked goods inside. He stopped moaning and started to smile as she placed the food on one of the plates. The wonderful smell of hot Applewood smoked bacon, freshly grated Parmesan cheese melted perfectly to blend with some garlic cloves and heavy cream, and the smell of pasture raised chicken cooked right to perfection with plenty of juices to go around, made him want to do a somersault right then and there. Fumitan placed a scrumptiously generous portion on his plate.

Ride wasted no time digging into the food once he received it. Fumitan smiled as she sat at the table arms crossed and looked at him. She was so glad to see kids smile. To her it was one of life’s greatest joys. Ride in particular made her happy as his smile was one of the brightest she typically saw at CGS. He was so happy for food that she was beginning to feel happy for him. She couldn’t take in the moment for too long though. The delicious smell attracted the attention of a few of the other residents of CGS.

“No fair, how did you get yours first?” a boy of the same build as Ride wearing only shorts rushed into the kitchen. He moved close to Ride pointing at the plate of food in front of him. Ride nearly ignored him as he was too engrossed in his own food to pay attention to anyone else. Having been ignored, the boy quickly moved to Fumitan and tugged on her.

“Ms. Fumitan!!!” he whined.

“Danji, don’t be rude,” a much heavier set and older boy was next to enter. He looked to Danji as he said this. Danji pouted and took a seat at the table beside Ride. He stared at Ride eating. Anyone could have seen that he was green with envy.

“Look Ms. Fumitan is fixing you a plate right now.” Danji turned to look at the boy who said this and smiled.

Two more boys soon entered the kitchen. One tall with spiky hair was struggling to rip off the other boy who had his arm wrapped around his neck. It was a futile effort as his grip was much too strong.

“Norba, Orga, what did I say about roughhousing in the kitchen?” Fumitan asked as she paused putting food on the plates. She turned to give them a look that said “keep it up and you won’t be eating tonight.” The glare she gave made the kitchen feel a few degrees colder than it was. Danji started shivering as he turned to look at Norba and Orga in a panic.

Norba quickly loosened his grip around Orga. He turned to look at him solemnly. As he did he hastily adjusted his shirt which was hanging loosely to the side and ruffled up from their earlier activity. He quickly pulled his sagging shorts up.

Orga coughed and rubbed his neck, glad to be free from the grip of the stronger boy. Similarly, he readjusted his shirt.

Both boys chuckled nervously. Seeing that they had straightened up, Fumitan returned back to preparing plates for the hungry boys.

“Ms. Fumitan, hurry,” Danji cried out as he realized he was still without his food.

“Biscuit, why did you leave?” a voice said from behind both Norba and Orga. Biscuit, the boy who initially reprimanded Danji, turned to look to where the voice came from. Norba moved out the way to reveal a boy in oversized sweatpants and a tank top who was slightly smaller than Danji. It made him appear even smaller than the others. He popped a small chocolate ball in his mouth as he entered the kitchen.

“I couldn’t leave Danji in here alone with Ms. Fumitan, you know how he gets when Ride is around,” Biscuit said matter of factly. Many sighs where heard from around the kitchen as many of them thought of the many situations that caused them to get headaches around CGS, they would be lying if they said it wasn’t because of Ride or Danji. Fortunately for them, Ride was too engrossed in his food to even entertain Danji.

“Excuse me, Mikazuki,” chimed another boy who had just turned the corner to enter the kitchen.

Mikazuki, whom Biscuit had just answered, moved over to allow the yellow haired boy in a loose fitting track suit space to enter the kitchen. He turned to look at Ride and smiled as he saw him happily eating.

“Yamagi,” Ride asked as he glanced upwards to look at Yamagi, “where’s Takaki?”

Yamagi shrugged his shoulders as he responded, “I thought he would have been with you?”

“No. I was at the library most of the day.”

“The library on a Sunday?”

“Homework,” Ride pouted as he remembered all the English sentences he had to answer on the worksheet.

“I’ve told you to do your homework on Fridays, you shouldn’t push it off to Sunday,” Biscuit chimed in.

“Who does homework on Friday?” Norba asked as he nudged Orga on his side.

“I did,” Orga answered.

Norba nearly fell over as he heard Orga’s response. “How could you?” he asked as he looked at him in shock.

“I did too,” Yamagi stated.

“See, you should do like Yamagi, Orga, and I,” Biscuit said as he looked to Ride. “Don’t be like Norba.”

“After a week of school, I deserve to relax. I don’t know how you all can do homework right when you come home,” Norba said defensively.

“If you don’t do it then, then you’ll have to rush to do it Sunday,” Biscuit added.

“He’s right Ride,” Yamagi added as he took a seat at the table.

“I get it! That doesn’t make it easy to do,” Ride exclaimed. He plunged his fork furiously into the plate.

“I do it too,” Mikazuki said as he took a seat. He popped another chocolate ball in his mouth as he waited.

“You don’t have to rub it in,” Ride said as he took a brief pause between bites.

Norba and Orga moved to take their seats at the table. Fumitan moved and placed plates in front of all but Ride. The conversation quickly died as the sounds of speaking was replaced with the sounds of chewing. Ride soon left the table as everyone else enjoyed their food. He took his plate to the sink and ran some water over it. As he did he thanked Fumitan, and went up to his room. As Ride climbed the stairs that rose just up and beside the kitchen, he spared one last look at the other inhabitants dining.

His movements became sluggish as he ascended the flight of stairs. He was mentally and physically drained. The food only added to his feelings of tiredness. When he reached the top he took a brief pause to catch his breath then continued on his way. His room was at the end of the hall, which wasn’t that much of a distance under normal circumstances. However, today it felt like it was literally on the other side of the town.

CGS functioned as a safe space for boys who had nowhere to call home. This sanctuary, or rather dormitory, gave them the chance to make deep bonds with others. Focusing on that theme, the creators started with the rooms. The first place to start with bonding was the rooms, so everyone found themselves sharing a room with at least one other person. These weren’t the dorms one would find at a university however, but rather a simple bedroom that would be at any decent sized residence. Rooms were big enough for two single sized beds. Spacious windows helped to enhance the size of the room by providing nearly floor to ceiling coverage. The location of CGS enabled many of the boys to have an virtually panoramic view of the entire countryside. Little things like this enabled CGS to feel like it was its own sanctuary tucked away on secluded area to give them the chance at peace and relaxation. Lastly, each room featured a minimalist design to maximize the floor space provided to the boys. With beds and desks in front of the windows, a large portion of the room was dedicated to an open meeting space. This would drive close interaction among the boys. For most people this was plenty of space for fun and games or just space to chill and hang out. Because of the very nature of the room design, there was usually not enough space for anyone to have a TV in their room, however most people did make due with using their computer monitors, if they had one, for video watching and game playing. Many of the amenities they could need such as an actual large TV, games for the TVs, and a sound system were located in a large common or living room area.

Ride bypassed the other boys’ rooms and the sole shared bathroom on the floor. His attention was focused solely on the door to his room. With the destination set he hastened his pace. He opened the door gleefully and eyed his bed with great joy. He speedily threw off his shorts. He then leaned over and let gravity carry him onto his bed, essentially flopping down on the bed. After a giant exhale he smiled as he hugged one of the many pillows on his bed. He ignored the closing the curtains as light streamed in the room and simply lay there as the open window allowed the cool dusk air to freely blow on him. The fading sunlight illuminated the room in a calming manner peacefully sending him off into dreamland.

“Urgh,” Ride groaned as he began to awake. He felt a vibration around his head. He shifted his arm in response to the rhythmical vibrations he felt. This motion only made the vibrations feel even stronger than before. Since he couldn’t remember ever having a vibrating pillow he immediately jerked up. When he did, he noticed that the vibration had now shifted away from his pillow but was now on his body, in fact, it was on his very arm. He immediately remembered what it was. His communicator watch, the craze of all the kids these days, was alerting him to a very important message. He moved his free hand to quickly silence the message alert. Upon interacting with it, he took a glance to read it. As he looked at it he winced in pain as the light appeared to be as bright as the sun. The light felt like he was staring directly into that burning ball of fire in the sky. He covered it with his hand and then took a huge breath to fully prepare himself to take a second look. This time it was slightly dimmer but still bright, however he managed to endure the pain to read the message.  With tears in his eyes, he quickly ignored all the pain at the realization of the importance of it the message. It was so important, in fact, that he quickly jumped out of the bed. He scrambled towards his computer with great diligence.

It was too dark to see anything so he was caught by surprise when his foot got caught in the shorts he kicked off earlier.  This surprised him making him lose any hope of saving himself from falling flat on the floor. He collapsed and landed with a floor shaking thud. The clock hanging on the wall over the bedroom door vibrated in response. It was as if it too could feel the pain that Ride felt. Ride winced in pain and agony but then quickly covered his mouth when he remembered how late at night it was. He didn’t want to wake the presumably sleeping roommate across from his bed. He quickly got back on his feet, bowed a silent apology to Yamagi and then scurried over to his desk. He turned back one more time to make sure Yamagi was still sleeping, and then he turned the computer on.

The desktop computer beeped to life chiming loudly. Ride panicked and quickly reached for the remote to his speaker to mute it. He forgot he and the others were watching an action packed larger than life fighting machines movie earlier. He prayed that no one else heard him. He turned to look to the other bed and only saw Yamagi turn over on the bed. Thanking the stars, Ride returned back to the computer.

Ride smiled at his background of Macaroni and Cheese and then quickly clicked the icon to his favorite MMO, La+. After it loaded its dazzling animated opening of fighting giant robots in space that bathed the room in multicolored lights, he logged into his account and was greeted by many messages from his friends, or rather his guild mates.

“Did you forget about tonight’s raid?” a scrolling message from a user named Junius7 popped up.

“I was tired!” he typed back. He fiddled with a few menu icons to modify his on screen avatar, a character aptly named RideON. His on screen kid pilot, that looked like him, got into its giant super robot. Ride’s robot was one that featured many science fiction enhancements that would be hard to implement in real life. His featured a long ranged hyper beam rifle that was essentially the same length as the super robot. It also featured multiple beam sabers that could be actualized when going into combat. The suit itself had two wings that split off halfway into two points. The blue and white color scheme of his robot was one he chose himself. It reminded him of the Age 2-Normal, a super robot from one of the animated classic he watched. His robot left from its launch base at the Moon Terminal. As the loading screen appeared, a flurry of messages scrolled by while he waited to join.

“Hurry up RideON,” a message from Junius7 read.

“What were you even doing?” a message from the guildmaster, IssueME read.

“Probably his homework,” a message from a user named Hiiro read.

“…” typed Ride.

“See,” a message from Hiiro appeared shortly thereafter.

“On a Sunday night?” IssueME responded.

“Trust me, it’s how he is,” Hiiro stated back.

“So true,” Junius7 responded back.

“Leave me alone, I already got yelled at by the people here! I don’t need you all too!” Ride typed in a flurry.

“We’re just teasing. School comes first…but only after our raid is done,” Junius7 typed.

“Is everyone ready?” IssueME typed back. IssueME was the guildmaster of their guild, Celestial Being. With their headquarters on the moon they were tasked with taking their small gang into the cosmos to try to command & conquer as many locations as possible. To do so, they fought AI opponents as well as other players in traditional MMO fashion. Tonight’s goal, to defeat the second coming of the Red Comet. This once in a month event promised to drop the many rare materials they needed to further enhance their super robots.

Ride clicked the glowing red “Ready” button on his screen. Soon he and the other player’s characters were transported to the location of the event. Ride happily giggled in excitement at the fun challenge that took place over the next hour. Among the laser firing, beam sword swinging, and fast paced 3D maneuvers only possible in a zero g environment, all his cares and worries faded away.

“We did it!” Ride said loudly. He temporarily forgot where he was at.

“Did what?” Yamagi said groggily.

“Nothing!” Ride whispered.

There was no response from Yamagi who seemed to have drifted back off to sleep. The sound of light rhythmical breathing was all Ride heard from behind him.

Ride was about to type a response but then he heard a light knocking on the bedroom door. He paused as he braced for the inevitable.

“Is everything alright,” Fumitan said softly though it was just loud enough for Ride to hear.

He quickly turned off the computer screen and dashed as fast and as lightly as he could back into his bed. The second he had the covers over him, the door opened. Fumitan entered the room with a small handheld electric lantern.

“Ride?” she said as she approached his bed.

“I’m sleeping!” he called out softly.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping? You have school tomorrow,”

“I know, that’s why I’m sleeping,” he responded as lazily as he could manage.

“Have you lost count of how many times you’ve been late to school this month already?”

“Gurk!”

“Why can’t you do like the others and get to school on time. Poor Yamagi tries his hardest and you still sleep past all the alarms, past breakfast, and even past the first bell of the day.  It’s a miracle you even make it to school at all.”

“But I am sleeping now.”

“Just a minute ago I heard you shout.  I thought something was wrong so I made haste to come as fast as I could. When I got here, all I found was you in bed. Something is going on but I just don’t know what.”

“There’s nothing going on. I just woke up in the middle of night, is all. I promise.” Ride sat up as he looked at Fumitan.

She looked back at him and hesitated before speaking.

He continued to look on earnestly.

Eventually she reached out her hand to pat him on the head and spoke softly. “Well get to sleep, we don’t want to wake Yamagi up now, do we?”

Ride smiled and lay down allowing himself to be tucked in by Fumitan. She retreated from his bedside, exiting the room soon thereafter gently closing the door behind her.  Ride waited patiently for her footsteps to grow faint and eventually silent before he got out of the bed and back to the computer.

“Did I miss anything?” he typed once the screen turned back on.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he had been booted from the raid results screen as everyone had already logged off. The only thing he saw was a flurry of great job and good game messages with numerous stickers of different characters expressing their thanks. He smiled as he read them. He then looked at the items collected from the raid and quickly moved them to his inventory in game. He decided it best to also log off and sleep. Inventory management could come later. Though he wanted to avoided making Fumitan angry so he quickly shut the computer down and went back to the bed.

“Ride, Ride, it’s time to get up,” Yamagi fully dressed in his gray cargo shorts and slightly oversized white short sleeved shirt said as he gently nudged Ride’s sleeping body a few hours later. Ride mumbled something unintelligible as he turned over in the bed. Yamagi prodded him with his finger again yet Ride wouldn’t respond.

“Ride, if you don’t get up right now you’re going to be late…again,” Yamagi said as he made his way towards the bedroom door.

* * *

“Is he still sleeping?” Takaki stated. Dressed the same as Yamagi, he was ready to head to school too. Having just finished eating the toast and eggs prepared by Fumitan for breakfast, he was now waiting for Yamagi, Ride, and Danji to get ready. Being in the same school and the same class, they found it nice to walk together. Unfortunately, Ride’s sleeping habits got the better of him, so often it would only be Takaki, Yamagi, and Danji who left together.

“Well its Ride,” Danji stated sadly. Takaki and Yamagi gave disapproving looks as they heard this.

“Well we can’t be late, so we might as well leave,” Takaki stated as he rose from his seat. He and the others gathered their bags which were already in the kitchen. As they picked up their bags, Takaki took a quick glance at Ride’s bag. The bag was decked out in pins and buttons of various super robots from La+.

“Do you think Ms. Fumitan will finally get mad at Ride?” Danji asked as they closed the door to CGS.

“Can you imagine Ms. Fumitan being angry?” Takaki stated.

“She doesn’t look like the type of person to ever get angry,” Yamagi chimed in.

“I don’t know, but the people like her, she could just go bananas someday,” Danji chuckled rather darkly. “Maybe she does get scarily angry though, Ride looks pretty spooked every time he enters class late.”

“Maybe you should try to help Ride out,” Takaki turned as he asked Yamagi this question.

“But he already does!” Danji exclaimed, “you should hear how loud Yamagi gets sometimes.”

“I’m not that loud.”

“You are…I hear you in the bathroom which isn’t even close to your room!”

“I don’t think I’ve heard him either,” Takaki added.

“That’s because you’re already up and downstairs already!” Danji exclaimed.

“I like to eat breakfast before we leave, you should too. Ms. Fumitan takes the time to make it for us every day. The least you could do is enjoy it in peace with her.” Takaki stated, it was if he was trying to suggest that they should follow his example.

“I would like to do that,” Yamagi pouted as he looked to Takaki.

“I’m sorry,” Takaki said, “Maybe next time we can help you wake Ride up?”

“He needs help, some serious help,” Danji added.

“Didn’t he go to sleep before all of us?” Takaki asked.

“He left dinner before us, was he sleep?” Danji turned to Yamagi.

“He was sleep when I went to the room and even after I spent a bit of time studying after that,” Yamagi answered.

“Maybe he was just really tired from doing homework all day?” Takaki suggested.

“From homework?” Danji looked at Takaki in shock. “Our homework was that hard?”

“It is if you don’t just write the first answer that comes to mind,” Takaki replied. The statement sent shockwaves through Danji. A cold sweat broke out as he stopped in the middle of the road to quickly take out his homework worksheet.

“Let’s, let’s compare our answers!” Danji shouted as he turned to look at both of them.

“No,” Yamagi stated.

“Absolutely not,” Takaki quickly stated.

“Come on, we’re roommates Takaki. Friends!” Danji shouted. He was practically begging as he held his paper out to Takaki.

“No, no, I said no,” Takaki turned away from looking at him.

“Takaki!” Danji moaned his name loudly. A few of the other students walking on the way to school turned to look at the three boys. Some other boys started murmuring at how odd of a scene it was especially at this early morning hour. Feeling pressured Takaki quickly responded.

“Stop making a scene, okay, here,” Takaki quickly took out his worksheet and handed it to Danji.

“Yes, thank you so much Takaki,” Danji said happily as he took the sheet and looked over the answers. His happy feelings quickly deflated as he realized he had more than half of the worksheet incorrect.

“Maybe you should go to the library with Ride to do your work too,” Yamagi suggested.

“The library is boring,” Danji replied as he corrected some of his answers while walking.

“But it will help you do better,” Takaki added.

“I’m not doing that bad,” Danji stated.

“But you’re not doing that well,” Takaki countered.

“How would you know how well I’m doing?”

“I see the graded papers sticking out of your bottom desk drawer. It’s hard to ignore all those bad marks and bad grades. I’m surprised Ms. Fumitan hasn’t said anything.

“You see them?!” Danji said gravely.

“How couldn’t I?” Takaki added.

Yamagi started chuckling.

“Well enough about that, we should help Ride!” Danji said in an effort to change the subject quickly.

“What should we even do, it’s not like he is going to be late, so that can’t be it,” Takaki was the first to say something.

“Do you think he wakes up in the middle of the night, maybe he has nightmares and he isn’t telling anyone,” Danji added.

“Are you speaking from experience?” Yamagi inquired with the concern that one would have for anyone being asked about a traumatic experience.

Danji only nodded in response.

Sensing that it could be a subject that that might cause some discomfort to Danji, Takaki avoided dwelling on it. He instead asked, “How can we help him with that?”

The three boys continued to walk albeit slower than they were before. The sounds of morning foot traffic among the small crowds gathering at the breakfast diners and coffee shops vanished as they thought of a solution to their friend’s problem. No one dared glance at each other in fear that they would have to voice their opinion on what to do. With no ideas coming to mind, no one thought to speak. Lost in their thoughts, they moved mechanically through the market toward the school.

Soundlessly, they entered Berstein Affiliated School (Berstein Affiliated for short) grounds. Unlike most typical schools with a focus on only one school grade, Bernstein Affiliated consisted of three buildings, one each for elementary, middle, and high school kids. It didn’t stop there at separate buildings for each but there were even multiple gymnasiums, club rooms, and cafeterias. The region wasn’t populated enough to even need all this space, as the entire school population could fit in one building and have room to spare. However, Norman Bernstein, whom the school was named after, spared no expense to make Bernstein Affiliated the leading public educational institution in the region. Multiple facilities for strengthening the minds of the youth were featured prominently in the buildings. Among them were multiple libraries catering to fiction, nonfiction, music, film, and the physical arts. These were but a few of the innovations brought to the table. Food quality was on a scale unforeseen for a school, students could attend cooking classes with leading professionals from all over the territory; Mars, space and even Earth. If they weren’t interested in cooking then they could experience a wide swath of food at the cafeteria, food from any culture imaginable was constantly on rotation at the many food carts and diners on campus. Cost was no object either as anyone was free to taste any of the food. Recreational activities were also on a level that was incomparable. Children had the option of participating in the performing arts taught by leading professionals in the field. For ones interested in the sports, they were able to receive special teaching by a rotating faculty staff of current and past professionals. The facilities provided to them were on the cutting edge of technology and utility. Some of the features made peers at local districts mouth’s water. No other school enabled athletes in outdoor activities to have the technology available to them to be able to train on any and all weather conditions. Even in the impossible was achieved here, want a rock climbing experience that could rival that of authentic outdoor climbing, then experience the indoor rock climbing wall with actual weatherization here.

To the boys of CGS the opportunity to come to Berstein Affiliated was an experience that wouldn’t have been able to be provided to them anywhere else. A school of the caliber of Bernstein Affiliated would have tuition costs rivaling that of prestigious colleges and universities with costs befitting of their longstanding tradition of producing some of the leaders in the humanities and the sciences. Who would let children with no money or pedigree into such a dignified educational institution? Fortunately, with the backers of CGS working behind the scenes and the charm of Norman Bernstein this school was made free of charge to all who lived in the city. Discrimination to those on the lower rungs of the financial ladder or ones who would otherwise be overlooked by society for just being dealt the wrong cards in life wouldn’t be tolerated.

Bernstein Affiliated featured the homeroom experience that students are typically exposed to. Ride, Yamagi, Danji, and Takaki belonged to the same homeroom. In fact, many of them took classes with each other. At this point in their schooling they were on the verge of doing like the upperclassman and diversifying their class portfolio to help them decide what they wanted to study later in secondary education and in post-secondary education. It was for this reason that the experience at CGS helped the boys draw closer together. Living together and having school together, it was the perfect setup, as the founders of CGS believed to give these boys a chance at experiencing the normal life of boys their age.

Once in the classroom the boys finally made headway on the question that plagued them for the morning walk to school.

As Danji placed his book bag on his desk he turned to the others. Once they noticed that he was trying to get their attention, they stopped and looked at him. Danji looked specifically at Yamagi but spoke as if he was speaking to both him and Takaki.  “Why don’t you see if he’s waking up in the middle of the night?”

“But then I won’t get a full night’s sleep,” Yamagi said as if he were bothered by something.

“We could just ask Ride,” Takaki suggested.

“You think he would tell us?” Danji asked as if the mere thought of it was simply out of this world.

Takaki and Yamagi sighed knowing all too well that getting Ride to share his feelings was as difficult as Danji getting a perfect score on an English assignment.

“If Yamagi doesn’t want to stay up then there’s nothing else we can do,” Takaki stated.

Yamagi remained quiet but appeared to want to say something. Before he could Danji spoke.

“But we have to do this for your roommate, our friend Ride. Don’t you want to help him?” Danji pleaded

“When would we do this?” Yamagi said.

“Whenever you want,” Danji added, just one more nudge he thought and Yamagi would be convinced. “We can come too,” Danji nudged Takaki on the shoulder, “right?”

“R-right,” Takaki said hesitantly.

“Should we tell Ride?” Yamagi asked.

“No, if we do that, he might not actually get to sleep,” Takaki spoke. “You know those times when you really need to get to sleep but can’t, it might be like that for him.”

Before Danji could respond, their homeroom teacher strolled through the door. Sensing his presence, Danji, Takaki, and Yamagi immediately took their seats. Tall, handsome, with long flowing hair and a voice that could convince anyone to buy even the most useless trinket they could imagine, their homeroom teacher was the living embodiment of charismatic leader. The presence he had about him prevented any and all students from acting up.

“Good Morning Mr. McGillis,” a mass of the student’s said as soon as he reached the podium at the front of the class.

“Good morning to you too,” he replied cordially. He quickly took out a few papers from his black briefcase. Sensing what was about to happen, Takaki, the male class representative, hastily went to the front of the class. At the front he was met with a much shorter girl who displayed some bits of nervousness. However, she, the female class representative, seemed willing and ready for the task at hand.

“Thanks, Atra and Takaki,” McGillis stated as he handed them the sheets. They both took them and began to pass them around. As they did, he began to speak.

“This morning’s assignment is very simple, follow the instructions on the paper while working with your partners to solve the problem set,” he continued to speak on the assignment which promised to challenge the students’ knowledge.

Yamagi paired up with Danji, while Takaki looked to Mr. McGillis for a solution to his dilemma.

“Ah Takaki, I trust you can do the assignment on your own? Your grades suggest that you should be more than ready to do it. Perhaps Ride will show up soon?”

“Thank you,” Takaki responded excitedly as he put pen to paper to begin the assignment.

* * *

The second the splash of cold water landed on Ride’s face he knew he was doomed. He screeched and yelped as he jumped out bed like it was on fire.

“Ms. Fumitan, I’m going, I’m going,” he yelled out. And with that he ran out of the room and straight towards the bathroom. With a cup in hand, Fumitan smiled as she looked at Ride run out of the bedroom. She grabbed the wet pillow that was now left on his bed still warm from the head that rested upon it to take it to get dried out.

“I can’t believe no one tried to wake me up, not even Yamagi! Aren’t we friends,” Ride groaned loudly as he ran the shampoo through his hair. He scrubbed harder than necessary in anger. As he dipped his head under the warm flowing water, he heard a knock at the door.

“I’m done, I’m done, “he yelled. He turned the water off, toweled himself off, and then ran back to his room naked. As water dripped from his hair all over the floor, he quickly put on the same shorts from yesterday and a wrinkled shirt with his favorite super robot on it. Screw uniform colors he thought, better to be late than never. “Where’s my bag,” he yelled!

“Dining room table, Yamagi brought it down,” Fumitan said from the doorway.

“When did you get there?” Ride asked shocked. “Wait, don’t answer.”

Fumitan followed Ride as he made his way through CGS.

“Last night you told me that nothing was wrong, that you woke up in the middle of the night. You said the same thing you say every time it happens. You then go on to say that you will not be late in the morning. Here we are, for the 40th time this school year that you are once again the last to leave CGS and the last to get to school. Today is another day that I will have to go and apologize to Ms. Stapleton.”

“Nothing was wrong, nothing is ever wrong,” Ride said as he placed his backpack on his back. He grabbed the piece of toast and slices of bacon that was resting on a plate on the table.

“I want to believe you Ride, I really do, but you’re making it hard.”

“You can believe me, I woke up in the middle of the night,” he said between bites of his breakfast.

“Ride if there is something going on you can tell me. I’m not going to get mad or angry. I’m here to help.”

“I told you before, Ms. Fumitan, there is nothing going on. Okay?”

Fumitan stared at him for several moments. Ride started to fidget nervously as he attempted to avoid her eyesight. He felt completely exposed under her intense stare. It was as if she were glancing at him underneath a microscope trying to spot the key flaw that threatened the integrity of the circuit preventing it from working properly. Ride nearly couldn’t take the pressure moving to almost tell her the complete truth. As his mouth struggled to move to form the words that was on his mind, Fumitan held out her hand and stated, “One day I’m going to find out what you are hiding.”

Ride gulped but thanked the stars that he didn’t have to come clean. I’m not hiding anything, Ms. Fumitan. I can’t help it if no one is there to wake me up.”

“Yamagi tried to wake you up. He was almost late because of you.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“Listen to me, Ride,” she said just before he pushed open the door to leave. “Apologize to Yamagi.”

Ride took the napkin she had stretched out to him and wiped his mouth. After he did he responded to her. “Okay, I will, and thank you for the breakfast. It was really good.” With that he finally walked out of CGS. He took a few steps then turned around. “I’m sorry, Ms. Fumitan.”

“For what?” She said as she stood right outside the front door to CGS.

Ride briefly hesitated before continuing, “For being late again, you don’t have to apologize to the principal for me.”

She tried to respond but he was already too far away.

“What will I do with him?” She sighed as she went back into CGS.

* * *

As he stood outside the classroom door, Ride paced nervously. Though he was always late, he always felt bad for not only interrupting Mr. McGillis’s class, but for showing up late to it. At the door he wished he had the powers like characters in fiction had who could alter time. If he could go back in time and wake himself up, then he wouldn’t be in this awkward situation. Why couldn’t he have been born a superhuman.  The expectations that people like Mr. McGillis had for him was just too much to bear sometimes that he felt crushed under the pressure. He was Ride Mass, just a normal everyday teenager, who made mistakes on his bad days and who was a superstar on his good days, at least, that’s what he liked to tell himself. Today was simply a bad day. He sighed and proceeded to lightly knock on the door.

“How nice of you to join us this morning Ride,” McGillis stated as he opened the classroom door. Ride glanced at the hand that was extended and quietly entered the room. Since this was a very common occurrence, the only ones to even pay him any mind were his other friends at CGS.

As Ride took his seat they began to chat.

“Well at least you didn’t miss the whole class,” Takaki said as he handed Ride the worksheet.

“Yamagi tried to wake you up,” Danji said.

“I know, Ms. Fumitan told me,” Ride replied as he looked to Yamagi. Yamagi only nodded in response. “I’m sorry if I almost made you late though. I didn’t even hear anything. Was I sleeping that deeply?”

“You were,” Yamagi stated.

“We could hear him yelling all down the hall,” Danji added.

“I didn’t even,” Ride said.

“It’s alright, we all have those days,” Takaki added before Ride could finish.

“Well it can’t get any worse than it already has,” Ride stated as he finally started on the assignment.

Takaki winked to Danji and Yamagi who both nodded in response. They would carry out their plan tonight. They would get to the bottom of his sleeping ailment and prevent this tardiness from happening any longer. They couldn’t bear to see Ride like this any longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. The inspiration for this fic was mainly just the RideTakaki friendship that seemed to grow through the series. I thought, since they are always running around in a very serious type of situation of galactic proportions, that it would be good to try to do something with them in a much different situation. By putting them here in the CGS that I developed as well as going through typical school stuff I think there is a good opportunity to seem them develop and grow. Danji is a pretty fun character who vanished much too soon so I decided to have him be a part of the crew. Yamagi was a definite inclusion too as I think he is a nice happy medium between all three characters.These four will probably always have a heavy presence but many others will continue to be around. 
> 
> My personal goal for this is every chapter will have no less than 5000 words and hopefully at least two updates a month.


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